The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1887-07-13
I. A. EDISON, TIE WIZARD.
TELLING ABOUT HIS EXPERIMENTS
IN SUBMARINE SIGNALING.

Tho Captains of Vessels Seven Miles Apart
Can Talk with Each Other--In PhiladeI-
His Laboratory.
A smooth-faced, thick-set, youthful
looking man, attired in gray suit and
accompanied by two handsome young
women, stepped brislily up to the desk
OF the Continental Hotel Office and regis
tered in plain round back hand,
'Thomas A. Edison, Orange, N. j." 1t
was the wizard of electricity. The young
women were his wife and sister .in-law.
He appeared to be enjoying the best OF
health, and said tho stories about his
being at the point of death while in
Florida were without foundation. He
said he had como to Philadelphia to
purchase electrical apparatus for his new
laboratory at Llcwcllen, n. j.
TWO MILLIONS IN EXPERIMENTS.
The laboratory, the erection of which
has Just begun, will, when finished, be
rs large as the University of Pennsyl-
vania buildings and viii be devoted en-.
tirely to experimenting. The machine
~ will be of the largest anu most i'm
proved patterns, the machine shop alone
being 200 feet long Mr.. Edison, in
speaking Of the c. 8 of experimenting,
said he Lad oxner"cd over 81, 100000 in
cNperimcniiu !, but Us it was strictly in
the line of his business he had found it
money well invested In speaking of
his Florida trip lie said he was SO we'll
! pleased with the climate that he had
erected permanent laboratory on the
banks OF the Caloosahatchio river, where
he Will continue his experiments every
winter. lie has erected a number OF
clcctrlc-llght plants in several Florida
towns, but he has not devoted much
time to plants
SIGNALING UNDER WATER.
Ono Of his most interesting cxperi-
monts was i'll submarine signaling, by
which messages can be transmitted from
ship TO ship by means of steam whistles
operated by keys in the same manner as
tclcgraphlc instruments. All his expo
rimcnts have SO far been confined to tho
waters of Caloosahatchic, where he has
succeeded i'll conveying Ineligible mes
sagcs distance of one mile. The prin-
ciple on which he will endeavoI to per-
feet his experiment is the remarkable
facility afforded by water for transmit
ting sound
Divers in the ocean have heard the
swish Of steamers wheels fifteen miles
away and Mr.. Edison thinks he can
transmit his message from ship to shlpa
distance OF at least seven miles. What
he purposes doing after he has perfected
apparatus is to have the large ocean
4, H. Il
ties and transmitters. Under the water
line of each steamer will be a soundcr,
connected with the captains cabin by a
thin transmitting wire running through
a tube. When the captain of one vessel
wants to signal another he will sit down
to his keyboard, turn the steam on his
whistle, manipulate the keys and send
the message out into the waves that
break against the soundcr. This sound
will pass uQAroken from wave to wave
with remarkable velocity until it runs up
against the sounder of some vessel or
vessels which may happen to be within
reach of the volume of sound.
AS soon rs the wave containing tho
sound strikes the soundcr on the hull of
the vessel or vessels within reach, the
message will run over the electrical wire
to the captains cabin, where it will ring
an electrical bell. An attendant will
then take down the message as it comes
from the water, by means of teicgraphic
keys, as comfortably and correctly as
though he were sitting in one of Jay
Gould's Western Union Telegraph Offices
receiving news about one of JAY Gould's
big deals.
PASSING TT ALONG.
After the message has been received
the captain can swing his vessel around,
and continue the message through seven
miles of water, in the samc direction,
until it strikes another steamer, when
the operation may be repeated until the
whole breadth of the ocean has been
crossed. 1t will also be useful rs a means
OF signaling by vessel III distress.
MIR. Edison seemed confident that his
experiments would meet with success,
but regrets that he cannot send tho mes
sage by electricity, instead OF steamer
whistle.